[Pollinator] Welcome mat for bees: Nonprofit group leads way in helping to develop habitat

[Scott Black]

<http://capitalpress.com>
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Friday, May 09, 2008

Welcome mat for bees
Nonprofit group leads way in helping to develop habitat

Mateusz Perkowski
Capital Press

Friday, May 09, 2008

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Matthew Shepherd, conservationist with the Xerces Society, studies a 
longhorn bee at Omeg Orchards in The Dalles, Ore. Like honeybees, 
native pollinators have been afflicted by disease as well as habitat 
loss. The Xerces Society encourages growers to preserve and enhance 
habitat on their farms.
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Mace Vaughan, conservation director for the Xerces Society, examines 
a native bee found near an orchard in The Dalles, Ore. Native 
pollinators have been found to boost yields in several crops.
THE DALLES, Ore. - It couldn't have been a nice way to wake up on a 
cold spring day.

After an entomologist dug it up from its comfy underground home 
overlooking a cherry orchard, the longhorn bee was placed in a tiny 
glass vial and passed among a crowd of curious onlookers.

To the orchardists, university extension agents and others in 
attendance, the sleepy insect was proof that a patch of bare soil on 
a scraggly hillside could serve a worthwhile purpose: as a home for 
native pollinators.

"There's all sorts of different places where you can squeeze habitat 
in," said Matthew Shepherd, conservationist with the Xerces Society, 
a nonprofit invertebrate preservation group that is organizing a 
series of native pollinator workshops in Oregon.

The problems plaguing commercial honeybees have attracted a lot of 
attention since late 2006, when roughly one-fourth of U.S. beekeepers 
lost about 45 percent of their hives, he said.

Mites, protozoan parasites and the mysterious Colony Collapse 
Disorder threaten honeybees - and thus crop pollination - but native 
species, like several types of bumblebees, are also in trouble, said Shepherd.

Diminished habitat, disease, improper pesticide use and other factors 
have reduced the populations of such native pollinators, according to 
the Xerces Society.

This is bad news for pollinator-dependent farmers, since native 
species can greatly improve crop production, said Shepherd. Each year 
they contribute about $3 billion to the U.S. economy, according to 
the Xerces Society.

Studies on sunflowers and cherry tomatoes, for example, have linked 
native pollinators with a doubling and tripling in yields, 
respectively, he said.

Native pollinators are unlikely ever to replace commercial hives, but 
they can obviously be a useful supplement, said Shepherd. As 
demonstrated in sunflowers, their presence during pollination compels 
honeybees to fly among a larger number of flowers instead of 
lingering amid just a few, he said.

"The native bees kept the honeybees moving," Shepherd said.

Whereas honeybees might not venture from the hive in cooler 
temperatures, native pollinators are more apt to collect pollen and 
nectar in spite of the weather because they don't have a honey supply 
to fall back on, he said.

"If they don't go out during the day, they go hungry," Shepherd said.

Farmers also stand to benefit from the lack of rental fees for native 
pollinators, although they should be under no illusion that the 
insects are free, he said.

To entice native bees to visit their fields, growers need to create 
habitats where the insects can live and feed, even when no crops are 
in bloom, Shepherd said.

In California watermelon fields, growers were able to achieve full 
pollination without honeybees if they left roughly one-third of the 
crop field's vicinity in natural habitat, he said.

About two-thirds of the 4,000 native pollinator species in North 
America nest underground, while the rest live in wood snags, Shepherd said.

Before growers set out to create habitat, though, they should first 
identify what native species already exist on their farms, he said. 
Then they should adopt practices that prevent harm to insects, such 
as not spraying when plants are in bloom, he said.

When designing a habitat, it pays to remember that not all flowering 
plants are created equal, said Mike Omeg, general manager of Omeg 
Orchards, where a Xerces Society pollinator workshop was recently 
held in The Dalles, Ore.

Though some plants will attract beneficial predatory insects, others 
will harbor pests, so varieties should be chosen carefully, he said. 
"You need to be clever about how you do it."

Other practical challenges need to be considered as well, which is 
why growers should start out small when creating habitat, Omeg said. 
"I'm taking baby steps because I don't want to make expensive mistakes."

For example, Omeg hasn't had luck with pollinator-friendly plants 
between the rows of his cherry orchards: They seldom withstand heavy 
machinery, he said.

Instead, he is planting cat mint in recycled fruit bins, which allows 
him to transport the plants throughout the orchards as necessary. 
Omeg is also planting and irrigating a one-acre parcel adjacent to 
his orchards to specifically serve as an "insectary."

Sometimes, however, developing pollinator habitat is a matter of what 
growers don't do, said Paul Jepson, environmental and molecular 
toxicology professor at Oregon State University.

Farmers can simply avoid cultivating "scab" areas, like the scraggly 
hillside above Omeg's orchard where the longhorn bee was dug up and 
eventually returned, he said.

"It doesn't have to be a perfectly manicured and engineered to be 
good habitat," said Jepson.

Staff writer Mateusz Perkowski is based in Salem, Ore. E-mail: 
mperkowski at capitalpress.com.




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Scott Hoffman Black
Ecologist/Entomologist
Executive Director
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
4828 SE Hawthorne
Portland, OR 97215
Direct line (503) 449-3792
sblack at xerces.org

The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit organization that 
protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.

To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work,
please visit <http://www.xerces.org/>www.xerces.org.


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